Enhancing Life for a Lifetime

By Theresa Castro, MBA

Do you often feel lonely, anxious, or even depressed? Is a mid-life or
quarter-life crisis threatening your confidence, self-esteem and
well-being? Do you yearn for practical advice on enhancing, balancing
and bringing new joy to your personal and professional life?
Tens of millions of Americans answer a resounding "yes" to one or more
of those questions. After all, statistics report that more than 19
million of us are diagnosed with depression each year. Here are seven
simple exercises to enhance your life for a lifetime:

1) ACCEPT THE LESSONS THAT ARE PRESENTED TO YOU

At times, we like to play the victim role when things happen to us
that are painful and difficult. First, change your attitude towards
those events. A change in your mindset creates miraculous shifts in
energy. Changing your perspective makes a negative situation suddenly
appear positive.

Next, spend time with yourself to understand the challenge for what it
really is by journaling and/or meditating. In your quiet time, ask
yourself why the situation or person was presented to you.

Appreciate the person, thing or experience that brings you the lesson.
Recognize that these situations are the impetus for change. For
instance, we may have a boss that makes our job so difficult that we
decide to find a new job.

Then, when we find this new career and love it, we wonder why we
didn't change jobs sooner. In this scenario, it is important for us
to realize that if we didn't have a boss who made us want to leave our
job, then we might have never left.

2) APPRECIATE ALL THINGS - GREAT AND SMALL

The lack of happiness stems from the lack of recognizing that we do
indeed have so much to be thankful. Even the person who feels that
they have nothing, upon introspection, they can find that they are
blessed with abundance. For instance, do we think about the gift of
sight or the gift of hearing? These are indeed gifts and we often
forget that they are gifts.

Take time to observe someone who suffers with some type of physical
impairment. For instance, how long does it take them to get from
their car to the front door of the grocery store? How long does it
take them to do their grocery shopping? Perhaps, it takes them twice
as long as you do or even longer. Whatever that time may be, we take
for granted that we can just park, hop out of our car and go shopping.
Instead, look around and observe how much you have.

3) BEGIN A GRATITUDE JOURNAL

Write in a journal at the end of each day. Note two things for which
you are grateful. You may want to recall what made you smile, laugh
or feel good all over. An example might be that you appreciate the
warmth of the sun or hearing the birds chirp on a morning walk.
Journaling may make you realize that life indeed has much to offer
that is available for free - we just have to recognize it!

Create a journal for a spouse/significant other. How many times do we
think about what we lack instead of thinking about we have? We might
focus on behaviors such our spouse forgetting to take out the trash.
We may even verbalize these thoughts to them.

However, did we make any comments about the things that our
spouse/significant other did unprompted? Did we say thank you? Did
we even recognize it? Creating a journal for your beloved can have
two benefits. First, you will recognize and be grateful for what you
have. Second, the journal allows for your spouse/significant other to
feel appreciated.

4) TEACH CHILDREN ABOUT GRATITUDE

Children model adult behaviors. Thus, when they see us say thank you
or send thank you cards, we are showing our children the importance of
being grateful. Make time to show a child ways to be appreciative.
This can be your child, the neighbor's child, a grandchild or a niece
or nephew. A simple activity would be that you could assist them in
making a thank you card.

5) CREATE LISTS

There many different kinds of list that you can create to facilitate a
new zest for life. Here are a few topics to consider:

Ten body parts that work well

Ten people who have assisted you

Ten things that give you joy and happiness

Ten things that you do well

Ten activities that make you smile

Ten things that you like about yourself

6) SEND THANK YOU CARDS

Recall the last time that you received a thank you card in the mail.
How did you feel? Reignite the same feelings by writing a thank you
card for someone else.

7) INCREASE YOUR AWARENESS

Make gratitude a daily part of your routine. Participate in some type
of activity each day that brings gratitude into your existence.
Recognize that being grateful allows more good things to come into
your life.